Preamp for mc275le. Need advice, please

Absolutely agree with Lewinskih01, as technology with preamps and amps is very mature, so what you get today will likely be just as satisfying in the future. DAC's are digital technology that is ever changing, and will continue to do so. Since you said you will be using a DAC a lot, and when something new and much improved is introduced, upgrading a separate DAC in the future will be much easier and less costly than having to replace a preamp/DAC combo unit.

Again, I agree with Lewinskih01. I have heard some older DAC's sound extremely good, however they did not have a USB input, and connection was digital coax from a CD transport. Yes, you can use black box convertors, then requiring an extra cable, however this can result in an increase of digital jitter, not good for the sound quality. My understanding is that asynchronous USB is superior to synchronous USB because of less jitter. As Lewinskih01 says, who knows what type of digital interface is around the corner that will be even better, and having a single component will be better than using black box adapters.

Ghasley, I don't think I disagreed with your point, as I stated in my previous post about an older DAC sounding extremely good, and yes, it was 20 years old. I do think it is quite amusing that you say, "built in, for basically no extra charge" and "with a free dac." I just can't see McIntosh saying forget about those parts and labor when determining the price of a product, although it is probably a small percentage compared to the unit's full price.

The DAC in the C50 and C2500 are the same, verified by an email response I received from McIntosh tech support.

D123phy, there were some problems with early C50's, however software upgrades solved the problem. Also, in my brief research, it appears the C2500 is an overall better sounding preamp than the C50.